Remnants of Lullabies
by Simply Not
Summary: I think of you, and traces we leave behind. Continuation of /Longing for Lullabies/ oneshot series. Will be mostly Wally/Dick but possible others. Drabbles. Rated M for safety. Slash
1. When They Laugh

This is my continuation of the three oneshots I did - Afterglow(Roy/Kaldur), Late in a the Evening(Wally/Dick), and Longing For Lullabies(Conner/Tim). I would like it if you read those but it's not needed. Just because I did those in a specific writing pattern and these will just be snippets... It's complicated. Whatever. Enjoy. Most of them will be Wally/Dick but I'll probably slip in some others.

Rated M will be for language and possible sexual situations (SEXUAL SITUATIONS!).

This will be the longest and possibly only Author's Note and Disclaimer of the story.

Do not own.

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><p><span><strong>3AM<strong>

_3 AM, soon the day will break_

_Your voice so close_

_Your lips are so far away_

_And our words they_

_Fly around across the ocean and_

_Disappearing somewhere over New Foundland_

_"Oh I love you"_

_- Kleerup, 3AM_

* * *

><p>When they laugh -<p>

- it's after a hard mission. One where Dick has come home, bloodied and broken. Where he can't breathe properly without blood coming up. Where his shoulder is hunched over and he can't see straight. On a night where Wally has been at an all nighter studying _because, dammit, school is important. We don't all have the ability to overanalyze - yes, Dick, _over_! - any situation to turn out fifty different ways. I'm gonna have to go to school for longer than a year to have a job, Di -_

Where Dick is sitting on the balcony of Wally's apartment, laughing at his inability to pick the locks on the window because his picks have already been used on the handcuffs from earlier and he can't seem to find the strength to stand up again.

Where it's three in the morning and Wally doesn't usually come home after such a long study session but for everything that he holds dear he can't help but be pretty _damn_ happy and terrified at the same time. Because he hears the scratching and the soft murmurs. The _Wally Wally Wally_ and _sorry sorry sorry_ and _Bruce Bruce Bruce_. The soft sounds of slurred words in a language that he's slowly learning and can't help his trembling fingers as he shakes dangerously close to relative time as he tries to call Alfred.

Where Wally resorts to pinching Dick's inner thigh to keep him up, even if he knows there will be thirty bruises there because of it. Where his eyes start to glaze over when there was still five minutes till Alfred and Batman show up.

Where Dick has started to laugh at Wally's half-assed jokes, knowing that if he laughs or chortles or suffers through a bloody cackle, that he'll be able to stay up for just one more second. Where Wally's own laughter is forced and hurting and dead. Where the sound of a breaking door can only mean Batman (_Bruce, god - I'm - I am so - god, if I had just come back earlier_) and Alfred (_what do you say to _Alfred_?_) and that _has_ to mean there's still enough time.

Where seven hours later he'll be next to Dick's bed at Wayne Manor, watching how his chest falls and rises in a shuddering pattern. Where he'll be waiting for the blue eyes to open and shine and apologize but know that this could happen again in a year or a month or a week or tomorrow. But it'll have be ok. Because when those eyes do open, when he can kiss his boyfriend and his boyfriend will kiss back, they'll have to be fine - with this life they've chosen.

But right now he can only laugh at the lame punch line that he just whispered to Dick, watching as his chest fluttered and croaked. Trying hard to think _Dick Dick Dick_ so he can just stay visible long enough for Alfred to call Barry, to make sure he doesn't slip into a time that'll allow him to think of other things - things he can't handle. He can handle it when all he can think of is _what's the moths life motto? To always look on the bright side_.

And how Dick had laughed at such a lame joke.

_To always look on the bright side._

When they laugh.

* * *

><p>Well then, ending on an angsty note.<p>

Eva


	2. When The Really Meet

Friendship

Con/Tim

Rated PG (not sure if that's K or K+ but whatever)

* * *

><p><strong><span>With Every Heartbeat<span>**

_So I don't look back, still I'm dying with every step I take_

_But I don't look back_

_And it hurts with every heartbeat_

_And it hurts with every heartbeat_

_- Robyn ft. Kleerup, With Every Heartbeat_

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><p>When they really meet -<p>

- it's not on purpose. The team had a simple mission in a not-so-simple town. It's that fish boy, M'gann and the blue one who is constantly talking to himself. It started out with just them. Then Bart showed up (_he doesn't question why he's there, but later he'll know why_) and that's when it went from simple mission in a not-so-simple town, to a not-so-simple mission in a not-so-simple town.

It's because Bart said that the stadium was filled with helpless civilians. Because Bart could only get out so many people before Poison Ivy closed off any sort of entrance. Because Conner started to punch his way inside because he could hear him.

_Bu-bum_.

It's because he could_ hear_ him.

_Bu-bum_.

If there was one thing Conner never forgot, it was sounds. He knew whose foot steps belonged to who. Could tell the sound of a zeta transport firing up miles away. Could tell by just a sigh who was frustrated or tired or annoyed.

It's because he could tell where his friends were by just their heartbeat alone.

_Bu-bum._

It's when he's taking down bad guy after bad guy after bad guy, pulling innocents out of the way, trying to hear past screams and fighting and that fish boy puffer-ing up.

Because he knows he's here.

_Bu-bum._

It's when Conner finds him he knows that, despite feeling such relief at his friends safety, he's probably going to get such a beat down from Nightwing and Batman, because it wasn't supposed to happen this way.

It was supposed to happen on bat terms. Hell, it probably wasn't supposed to happen _at all_ if he was being completely honest with himself.

It's because, god, when had there been so much blue staring at him in such a controlled panic? Conner even looks around, unsure if he's really staring at Robin, if he was possibly hearing wrong. But he's never heard wrong before, so why should he now?

Robin -

_are you really, really sure_

_like really_

- plays it off after a second, ducking his head, staying close to what Conner can only assume are school friends. Tries to make himself small, blend in with the crowd, look lost and helpless.

_Bu-bum._

But a second is all Conner needs - all he needs to know, that yes, _holy smokes Batman_, this is Robin. He grabs forward, catching Robins arm as he was about to purposefully take a hit from some wayward vine to protect his identity, and jumps up onto the higher bleachers.

And stares.

Because it's not supposed to happen this way.

_Bu-bum. Ba-bumBa-bum. Babumbabumbabumbabum._

But it does. And Conner unabashedly smiles at a very red, very stressed, very blue-eyed Robin.

When they really meet.


	3. When They See

Romance

Wally/Dick

Rated M

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><p><strong><span>Let Me In<span>**

_Let me in_

_Let me in_

_All I want_

_Is for someone to see me_

_- Susan Sundførd ft. Kleerup, Let Me In_

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><p>When they look -<p>

- it's usually not on purpose. It happens when the Boy Wonder is with Wally, sure that they're alone, positive that no one is going to intrude on 'bromance-that-might-be-romance time', certain that there is no way in any universe that someone is going to happen upon them. And even then, it's because Robin _may_ have slipped into Dick, _just_ for a second.

It's because he tilts his head, maybe laughs a little too hard, or leans down frustrated that Wally actually managed to beat him (_once out of thirty, dude, _not_ an excuse to brag_) in the new game.

Wally soaks up those moments, because he's never seen such blue, never seen eyes so bright and full of life and damn beautiful - _because god, Dick, you watched your damn parents die_. Not like he'd tell his best friend that. Not in a million years.

Because then he just can't handle to see those eyes. Can't stand the cold, the dead, the absent look in them. When Robin doesn't care that Wally is seeing _helpless-_Dick Grayson, not_ awesomely amazing-_Dick Grayson. When he's seeing that small nine year old instead of the fifteen year old who _is_ growing, thank you very much.

But...

When it is.

When it is on purpose, when his Bat Brat wants it -

Wally patiently (_not a word used to describe him often)_ waits for when Robin _wants_ him to see Dick. Wants him to see Richard. Wants him to see his soul. His burning, thriving, intense, passionate _gypsy sou_l.

It's when they share their time with each other, in the safety of their rooms at the cave, Wally's room at Uncle B's and Aunt I's when they're out at dinner, or Dick's room at Wayne Manor because Bruce is preoccupied being a fake-not-fake-but-still-mostly-fake-playboy and Alfred just knows. Obviously.

It's when Wally is touching his cheek, his hot breath ghosting across Dick's mostly-unblemished (_no, Dick, I don't want to use _just_ blemished_) face, because there is that invisible scar from Two-Face right above his left eyebrow from a knife. And that almost non-existent (just _existent Wally, existent - haven't you learned anything_) scratch from that gunshot of Jokers. And that eye wrinkle-that's-not-a-wrinkle, something he got on their very first mission together.

And Wally is starting to think that blemished would be there better word - because it's such a _right_ word, such a _right_ blemished.

It's when Wally is pushing not one, not two, maybe three fing - _oh fuck it Wally, just get it in already_. When Wally can't help but think Dick looks so fucking hot beneath him, loves it even more when pale legs wrap around his waist, is fucking losing it when thin fingers wrap into sweaty red hair, pulling and, _fuckfuckfuck I just can't, KF. W-wall...ooh...ah, Wally!_

And he just can't.

It's when Wally fingers the glasses, or the domino mask, or that blindfold from that one night, or that tie and can't help it if his breath catches at the sight of deep, uncontrolled love.

When they see.


	4. When They Worry

Slight-Romance(if you squint reallyreallyreally hard)/Angst/Hurt/Comfort

Conner/Tim

Rated K+ or T (depending on your ability to handle the word blood...there isn't much...like a drop)

* * *

><p><strong><span>Best of You<span>**

_It's real, the pain you feel_

_You trust, you must_

_Confess_

_Is someone getting the best_

_The best, the best, the best of you?_

_- Foo Fighters, Best of You_

* * *

><p>When they worry -<p>

- it's because Conner is mostly indestructible. He's the clone of Superman. Faster than a speeding bullet -

_It's a bird._

_It's a plane._

_It's Superman!_

- and he can take a punch from some of the strongest super-villains out there and still get up and give it his all. No one has ever really had to worry about Conner. He could handle his own.

It's always the one they don't have to worry about, isn't it?

It's because Lex Luthor has apparently manufactured everything that could possibly harm a Kryptonian. Because he apparently sends out these weapons in a goddamn gift basket, because there is apparently a goddamn kryptonite knife sticking out of Superboy's goddamn stomach and, _oh god_, Tim doesn't think he's ever really seen Conner bleed and the red substance (_somewhere in the back of his mind, and he'll laugh about it later, he had doubted it was red_) is suddenly coming out of the wound and his mouth.

It's worrisome (_terrifying, horrible, nauseating_) to watch Conner curl around the wound, gasping and shaking and grabbing whatever he could around him. And despite the fact that the green rock weakened Conner, Tim still felt as if his hand was going to break.

It's because Tim has never seen Superman so scared, so willing to step towards his greatest weakness for the sake of the clone who he refused to acknowledge in the beginning. How Nightwing is obviously the one to take control of the situation, apologizing with a strained voice before pulling out the knife, Conner grunting, biting his tongue and Tim knows that he'll have three fractured fingers as soon as Nightwing races away.

It's because it's Conner who had reached his other hand across his body, grabbing the spandex of Robin's uniform, releasing the pressure from the younger boys hand, gently rubbing a thumb across the back and -

_Are you okay?_

- is the first thing out of Conner's mouth and Tim almost smacks him because, _you just got stabbed, and it broke skin, SB._

It's because even though Tim sees his wound closing up and he spits the last of the blood out of his mouth and Superman helps his almost-son up, he stares over at Dick who is talking just out of range of the two ignorant Kryptonians and probably in code to Bruce, twirling the offending object in his hands, staring intently at the still dripping blood.

Tim can't help but grab the pant leg of Conner, still kneeling on the dirt, and rub his hand across Conner's abdomen, oblivious to the shudder that runs through the other boy.

When they worry.

* * *

><p>I'm full of happy angst, aren't I?<p>

Eva


End file.
